Hi Everyone,

I've heard some horror stories about stck factory hitches on Chevy trucks. There is rumors about improper welds, rust, and the hitches falling off the truck. Is there any truth to this or is it only on certain models/years. Should I worry about the hitch on my truck or not. Do I need to replace it or will I be OK?

Thanks,

Phil

What and how often are you towing? I've heard mainly of the hole for the pin wearing. If you tow a lot of miles heavy, I'd look into it. I only occasionally pull a bumper tow (the other 23000 miles towing have been my gooseneck.) so I don't worry about it.

Like Rockin,

Idahofox

The only "official" notices I've read about, on factory mounted receiver hitches, was on late '90's/early Millenium Dodge trucks. Most of the contractors tow with their stock GM Class-IIIs without problems. Those that have had problems rarely admit to overloading their hitches or swear to never needing W/D or Sway-Control hardware....

If you stick to the numbers (limits) on the factory receiver hitch, you'll never have problems. If you exceed the 5000 lbs bare or 10,000 lbs with W/D, then the clock is ticking towards and eventual structural failure.

Since we do not know what you intend to tow with your truck, it is difficult to advise you on which hitch is best for your application.

I know that we have all seen small pick-ups with bent down rear bumpers at one time or another, especially around boat ramps or on contractor trucks. This is a hard lesson to learn, but it comes down to reading the factory supplied manual(s) for safe and reliable operating instructions of one's equipment. Most of us know that a 9K lbs IR air compressor is too heavy for the stock pick-up bumper, and some feel comfortable pulling them down the highways occasionally. However, it does not matter how often this is done, since only once is enough to weaken the stress points on the mounting hardware. That "one time" pull is enough to de-rate the hitch assembly. It is then susceptible to failure, even under the stated weight ratings.

RF

I towed my old 8k pound TT with w/d, the hole for the receiver pin wallowed and now has slop in it. So to fix the problem I sold my old TT and bought a 5th wheel!!! :D

Seriously...the hole for the hitch pin did wallow, now I only pull my 2500 pound boat...so I'm not sweating the issue.

MaxRock

i have pulled 8K around with it regularly, several thousand miles. i have not seen any cracks, play, etc. i check it regularly, but will not replace it unless there are problems.

I'm towing a Prowler 250RKS TT that has a gross weight of 7200 pounds. I'm using a Reese dual cam HP sway WD hitch. I pulled this trailer with my 97 F-150 with not a problem except I couldn't go over 62 MPH except downhill with a tailwind. With the Chevy, I can FLY!

I hope this helps. I just heard a few stories like I said about hitch problems with the GM factory hitch but nothing specific. Next trailer will be a fifth wheel but not for a few more years. Got to go one step at a time.

Thanks,

Phil

There are a few stories, with pictures, here and on RV.net of stock hitches bending, welds cracking, and holes elongating when towing very heavy trailers. If you compare the stock hitch with an aftermarket class V hitch you will see why. The replacement hitches are about twice as beefy as the OE unit. Because my trailer is very heavy and because I didn't want to risk any damage I opted to replace it for the extra margin of safety. I'm sure the hitch is fine for loads up to about 75% of its capacity, but it's a designe that does not inspire confidence and the cost for peace of mind is very low.

TC

I used to be concerned about my hitch pulling 15,000# trailers until I was at Muncie last year.

40,000# sled and 600+hp w/ 26" hitch height didn't break them, they have to be real tough.

Like Dmax Tim said. I've hooked to the sled 40 times with my '01. 40,000#'s, 26 inch hitch height - no problems. I did break a ball mount once. I wouldn't worry about it at all.

I'm not familiar with the set up in sled pulling. How much vertical weight is placed on the hitch when hooked up? The problems with the stock hitch, as I understand them, don't come from the horizontal loads, but from heavy loads and the racking and twisting that comes from towing on the street. Some of the reported symptoms include cracked or broken welds, pin hole elongation, and, rarely, complete separation of the receiver box from the rest of the hitch. It's entirely possible that all of these resulted from a few defective hitches and don't reflect a design or manufacture problem generally. I didn't want to find out.

TC

I'm not familiar with the set up in sled pulling. How much vertical weight is placed on the hitch when hooked up? The problems with the stock hitch, as I understand them, don't come from the horizontal loads, but from heavy loads and the racking and twisting that comes from towing on the street. Some of the reported symptoms include cracked or broken welds, pin hole elongation, and, rarely, complete separation of the receiver box from the rest of the hitch. It's entirely possible that all of these resulted from a few defective hitches and don't reflect a design or manufacture problem generally. I didn't want to find out.

TC

Let see, hitch is 26" off ground, 4' or less chain is hooked to the base plate of the sled (30-40* angle) truck is in low range, 600+ hp, some have double helper springs, suspension blocks, tires over inflated, even run DRW on 2500HD, 1500# of steel in front of front bumper to keep front end down, throw in wheel hop, shifting/downshifting.

It's more extreme than anything you'll EVER hook to :eek:

look at these pics for last weekend
http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36555

So I was wondering how long the current hitch/receiver design has been on the trucks (HDs anyway) and if there has been any documented probs. with the current design? This current unit says it's good for a 7500# trailer and 750# tongue weight in non-W/D -- that's the highest rating of ANY of the big 3 manufacturers for a SRW truck. It also is tied into the bumper, versus being a stand alone hitch like I've had on my Fords.

I had receiver bolts fail under normal use on a '90 CK2500 I used to own, it was only held on by 4 bolts -- the back two failed, but fortunately the hitch fell down and was stopped by the spare (otherwise it wouldn't have been pretty as we were towing on the fwy).

I have seen a few of these hitches fail. Most have been for hole elongation and twisting of the reciever tube. Fords new hitch on the SuperDuty is rated for 15,000 for wieght distribution and 12,000 lb pull with a 2 1/2 inch ball mount. (Titan Hitch). Also those hitches are available for the Chevy HD.

That 15k lb hitch is only available on the Ford Superduty drw models. We had ordered an '05 srw F350 and the max hitch was a 12.5k lb w/d and 5k lb non-w/d. Our purchase fell apart when that truck came in, but I did look at the hitch ratings, and it was a std. 2" receiver with a 5000 lb trailer/500 lb tongue rating in non-w/d. I laso have a friend with an '05 Dodge 2500 CTD 4x4, and his is rated the same as the Ford, so for single rear wheel trucks, GM has the top rated hitch (non-w/d). I know there are a couple aftermarket ones out there with higher ratings, my comments were aimed at the factory units...

I was pleasantly surprised when we looked at the Chevy and saw it's non-w/d rating so high. We have a camper and will need to run an extension, but I'm thinking of having one custom made that will include tabs so I can triangulate the end of the extension back to the frame using chains/turnbuckles, similar to the SuperHitch design, if you've seen that (but without the double tube). The chains will help with lateral loads only. Our heaviest trailer we'd use with this set-up should be 5000 lbs (give or take 500).

Dan if you put a titan hitch on your truck then you can add an extension for your camper. Reese and Draw-tite both offer this. They call the hitch a Towbeast now. Your p/n for the the hitch is 45016 and the extension piece is p/n is 45162 which can be cut down to lengths from 41" - 34" - 24" or p/n 45018 which is for 41" or 48".

thanks, Johnswiftm -- unfortunately I've already ordered new torklift camper tie-downs that are for the stock hitch, so I'm now trying to figure out how to build a strong enough extension set-up that'll work with the stock hitch. I should have known to look here and see if there were problems with the stock unit handling what it's rated for :o: . Any chance these failures were from some significant overloading?

I guess we could always buy a smaller camper... ;)

We've towed 16k worth of hay/trailer lots of times, and regularly pull 3-6k. I suppose it is overloaded but I haven't gotten around to converting that flatbed trailer to a gooseneck yet.

Somehow that's what I was hoping to hear. I've towed a 10k trailer off the stock hitch of my '99 PSD and it's hitch was only rated at 5k (this was non-w/d). I have a hard time beleiving that Ford under-rates theirs and GM over-rates theirs. I'll bet the GM hitch will at least handle the 7500 lbs it's rated for, if not a whole heck of a lot more. Not that I plan to live dangerously, but I sure would hate to think I should've bought the '05 Ford instead... :eek:

I think the stock hitch on my '05 is junk. I set my WD hitch up perfectly as the manual states. I cannot get the WD hitch to work right with this truck. After two tows of our 2000 Kit 20' camp trailer, the hitch receiver is bent upward at the rearward end. It flexs and bends, rather than distributing the weight to the frame of the truck. There will be a new hitch on the truck before we tow again, hopefully this week yet. I might add that I had the aftermarket hitch on my Ford set up perfectly, and it worked well. This one is a flimsy piece of junk.

I have read in the RV Gazzette two articals that talked about twisting of the hitch. I towed a travel trailer 8,500 LBS for 3 years no issues.

After talking to our area's leading hitch service center, my thoughts were confirmed. He says he has a pile of the stock Chevy hitches that go to the recyclers. He's installing a class V on mine tomorrow.

Got it installed, and set up the WD hitch last night for my TT. It was a snap with the new receiver. The Drawtite is night and day better than the stocker.

I have read in the RV Gazzette two articals that talked about twisting of the hitch. I towed a travel trailer 8,500 LBS for 3 years no issues.

Is that in a non-W/D mode you're towing? thanks... I still think I may try my hybrid out 1st....:cool: